We already know from this question (and the various others that one links) that the DPS is calculated taking into account the different affixes like Increased Attack Speed, Critical Chance, and Critical Damage.

When searching the action house, should I care to filter for one of those 3, or should I just order the list by highest DPS and only look at that (and other affixes that do not affect damage, like life steal)?

Should I prioritise one of them, or are all the same in practical terms?

Spartacus's answer thoroughly covers the main issues, but it is worth emphasizing that Critical Damage and Critical Chance are not included in the DPS numbers listed for weapons in the AH, while attack speed bonuses on the weapons are reflected by the DPS value. Critical Chance doesn't actually exist as a potential bonus for weapons (although it is possible that some legendary weapons have CC), so you cannot filter weapons on the AH by critical chance.
–
BeofettDec 19 '12 at 13:58

3 Answers
3

There are many calculators out there that can figure out how much DPS increase a primary stat, a single point of crit chance, attack speed, and crit hit damage will do for your character. It is beneficial to take all of them into consideration.

Some skills only take into account of weapon damage, and not DPS. For that reason, you may want to consider average weapon damage instead. Using the monk's seven sided strike for example, even though a 1.0 attack speed 1k average damage hammer has the same dps as a 1.5 attack speed 667 average damage dagger, your SSS will do a lot more damage with the hammer than the dagger.

On top of that, there are many hidden attack speed thresholds for many skills that you may not know.

There are very specific IAS break points for many skills that can make a huge difference. For example, a WW Tornado barbarian or a Wicked Wind Wizard have specific target attacks per second for their main killing skills. Even though your dps character sheet might show that you are 'losing' some DPS, your damage output may be increased if you hit one of those breakpoints.

Some builds rely on having high crit chance, such as the popular critical mass wizard build so you may want to prioritize crit chance over crit hit damage.

Lastly, when considering a weapon, 'black weapon damage' is very popular as it comes into play when you have items that add % damage as elemental (such as the stone of jordan). That's why those tend to be more expensive. And this is also why cold damage SOJs are more valuable since a lot of people like it to add a snaring effect to their attacks.

Crit chance and crit damage are NOT included in the DPS displayed for an item. They are only included in the damage stat on your character sheet. So the DPS number displayed in the auction house won't display the full story of how it will affect your character's DPS.

As an extreme example, imagine that your character has 100% crit chance. A weapon that does 40% extra critical damage is going to do 40% more damage for you every time. But if your crit chance was 10% instead, its only going to give you a 4% overall increase in damage. So which affix you should prioritize is dependent on your other stats, and you'll have to do the math yourself, since you can't get a full damage calculation from an item on the AH.

you should first of all look for a small difference between min and max damage, aiming at a high max damage. also depending on your class and build you will want a weapon that is faster or slower so you should always look at attack speed also.
other kinds of affixes affect your overall stats and survivability. you can have 2x 1600dps weapons if you have no loh or ls on your char at all they might be worse than any other weapon that you can survive with.